Scent of a Woman ***** (1992, Al Pacino, Chris O’Donnell, James Rebhorn, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Gabrielle Anwar) – Classic Movie Review 800

In producer-director Martin Brest’s entertainingly sentimental 1992 epic comedy drama Scent of a Woman, Al Pacino gives a glorious show-stopping performance that runs the gamut from funny via sad to tough in turns, winning his long-awaited Oscar after seven previous nominations.

So far it is his only Oscar, and was his most recent nomination too until his nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role for The Irishman (2019). Of course he should have won Best Actor for Serpico, The Godfather: Part II or Dog Day Afternoon, but he’ll have to settle for winning for this one.

In any case it’s not such a bad thing. Scent of a Woman is the Al Pacino Show – just watch him tango with Gabrielle Anwar and race a sports car in New York City! – showing no effort or strain as he sustains a ridiculously long movie of 156 minutes, which they could have profitably cut by half an hour.

Nevertheless, even as it is, the movie and its main star still command absolute attention throughout. Just getting a look in now and again, the 22-year-old Chris O’Donnell is extremely pleasing, in a huge loyal and stalwart support performance as straight man to the star, playing a 17-year-old schoolboy called Charlie Simms who is on the spot at his posh school for not naming a prank’s wrongdoers.

The boy applies for a Thanksgiving weekend job and he ends up in New York having to look after the blind, cantankerous and bitter ex-military man, Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade (Pacino of course), and helping him have his last weekend of fun before he intends to commits suicide.

James Rebhorn (as the stern, smug posh school teacher Mr Trask) and the 25-year-old Philip Seymour Hoffman (as fellow rich school kid George Willis Jr, who is also on the spot at school with O’Donnell) make their marks, too, in a film that is easy just to surrender to and simply enjoy. The 2014 Oscar Best Supporting Actress nominee June Squibb (for Nebraska) appears as Mrs Hunsaker.

Scent of a Woman is a remake of Dino Risi’s 1974 Italian film Profumo di Donna, with Bo Goldman’s screenplay adapting the original novel Il buio e il miele [Darkness and Honey] by Giovanni Arpino.

It was shot around New York state and on location at Princeton University, at the all-girls Emma Willard School, in Troy, New York, and at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York City.

Pacino was also nominated in the 1993 Oscar race for best supporting actor in Glengarry Glen Ross.

Scent of a Woman was also nominated for Best Director, Best Picture and Best Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published, but Pacino’s Best Actor in a Leading Role award was the only Oscar win.

Pacino re-appeared in a star support role for Brest in his notorious box-office bomb Gigli (2003).

Busy character actor Rebhorn died on March 21 2014, aged 65, after a prolific five-decade career.

Philip Seymour Hoffman (July 23, 1967 – February 2, 2014).

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 800

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